THE  MAN-EATING  LIONS 
OF  TSAVO 


BY 


LIEUT.-COL.  J.  H.  PATTERSON,  D.  S.  O. 


Zoology 

Leaflet  7 


FIELD  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 

CHICAGO 


The  Zoological  Leaflets  of  Field  Museum  are  de- 
voted to  brief,  non-technical  accounts  of  the  history, 
classification,  distribution  and  life  habits  of  animals, 
with  especial  reference  to  subjects  shown  in  the 
Museum's  exhibits. 

LIST  OF  ZOOLOGICAL  LEAFLETS  ISSUED  TO  DATE 

No.  1.  The  White-tailed  Deer $  .10 

No.  2.  Chicago  Winter  Birds 10 

No.  3.  The  American  Alligator 10 

No.  4.  The  Periodical  Cicada 10 

No.  5.  The  Alligator  Gar 10 

No.  6.  The  Wild  Turkey       10 

No.  7.  The  Man-Eaters  of  Tsavo 50 

D.  C.  DAVIES,  Director 

FIELD  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 
CHICAGO,  U.S.A. 


Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

DEPARTMENT  OP  ZOOLOGY 
Chicago.  1926 

Leaflet  Number  7 

The  Man-Eating  Lions  of  Tsavo* 

When  the  visitor  to  the  Field  Museum  pauses  be- 
fore the  life-like  forms  of  the  Tsavo  man-eaters,  it  will 
be  hard  for  him  to  realize  that  these  two  ferocious 
brutes  killed  and  devoured,  under  the  most  appalling 
circumstances,  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  Indian  and 
African  artisans  and  laborers  employed  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  Uganda  Railway.  For  over  nine 
months  these  insatiable  monsters  carried  on  an  inter- 
mittent warfare  against  the  Railway  and  all  those 
connected  with  it  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tsavo.  This 
culminated  in  a  regular  "reign  of  terror"  when  they 
finally  succeeded  in  bringing  the  railway  works  for  a 
time  to  a  complete  standstill. 

A  late  great  President  of  the  United  States,  that 
man  with  the  wonderful  personality — Theodore  Roose- 
velt— has  put  it  on  record  that  "the  story  of  the  Man- 
Eaters  of  Tsavo  is  by  far  the  most  remarkable  account 
of  which  we  have  any  record ;"  while  that  veteran  big 


♦This  leaflet,  prepared  by  Col.  J.  H.  Patterson,  recounts 
the  main  events  of  his  remarkable  experiences  with  man-eating 
lions  previously  told  at  greater  length  in  his  well-known  book 
"The  Man-Eaters  of  Tsavo."  In  1924,  Col.  Patterson  delivered 
a  public  lecture  in  the  Field  Museum.  At  that  time  he  remarked 
to  President  Stanley  Field,  of  the  Museum,  that  he  still  possessed 
the  skins  of  the  famous  killers  of  men.  As  a  result,  they  were 
purchased  by  Mr.  Field  and  presented  to  the  Museum.  With 
considerable  difficulty,  owing  to  the  age  of  the  skins,  they  were 
mounted  and  are  now  permanently  preserved  in  the  spirited 
group  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustration. 

[89] 


2  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

game  hunter  and  African  pioneer,  Selous,  who  was 
himself  killed  in  Africa,  not  far  from  Tsavo,  wrote  as 
follows : — 

"No  lion  story  that  I  ever  heard  or  read  equals  in 
its  long  sustained  dramatic  interest  the  story  of  the 
man-eaters  of  Tsavo.  It  is  an  epic  of  terrible  tragedies 
spread  out  over  several  months  and  only  at  last  brought 
to  an  end  by  the  resource  and  determination  of  one 
man." 

These  remarkable  lions  had  the  distinction,  prob- 
ably unique  among  wild  animals,  of  being  specifically 
referred  to  in  the  British  Parliament  by  the  Prime 
Minister  of  the  day,  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  who  in 
apologizing  for  the  delay  in  the  construction  of  the 
Uganda  Railway  said: — 

"The  whole  of  the  works  were  put  to  a  stop  be- 
cause a  pair  of  man-eating  lions  appeared  in  the  locality 
and  conceived  a  most  unfortunate  taste  for  our  work- 
men. At  last  the  labourers  entirely  declined  to  carry 
on  unless  they  were  guarded  by  iron  entrenchments. 
Of  course  it  is  difficult  to  work  a  railway  under  these 
conditions  and  until  we  found  an  enthusiastic  sports- 
man to  get  rid  of  these  lions  our  enterprise  was  seri- 
ously hindered." 

Work  Begins  at  Tsavo. 

When  I  landed  at  Mombasa,  I  fully  expected  to 
encounter  many  trials  and  hardships  while  engaged  in 
building  the  railway  through  an  inhospitable  and  sav- 
age territory.  I  anticipated  engineering  difficulties, 
perils  from  sunstroke  and  fevers,  a  possible  scarcity 
of  food  and  water, — but  never  for  a  moment  did  I 
realize  that  the  African  wilderness  held  in  its  mys- 
terious recesses  two  prowling  demons  who  looked  upon 
myself  and  my  workmen  as  a  sort  of  manna  sent  down 
from  Heaven  for  their  special  delectation.  All  other 
difficulties  were  as  nothing  compared  to  the  terrible  toll 

[90] 


Man-Eating  Lions  3 

of  human  sacrifice  exacted  nightly  by  these  savage 
monsters  who  made  Tsavo  their  headquarters  and  gave 
to  that  district  an  evil  repute  which  lasts  to  this  day. 

Mombasa,  the  starting  point  of  the  Uganda  Rail- 
way, is  an  old  Arab  city  fringed  with  palms  and 
washed  by  the  warm  waters  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  Up 
to  the  time  of  my  arrival  in  tropical  Africa,  I  had 
pictured  to  myself  a  desolate  shore,  sandy,  rock-strewn, 
with  a  scorching  sun  burning  up  everything  beneath 
it,  but  my  first  view  of  Mombasa  gave  me  a  pleasant 
surprise.  Green  verdure  abounded  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach,  while  dazzlingly  white,  flat-roofed  houses  peeped 
out  between  tall  cocoanut  and  spreading  mango  trees, 
waving  palms  and  huge  baobabs,  forming  a  most  de- 
lightful and  beautiful  picture,  framed  against  a  dark 
background  of  well-wooded  verdant  hills.  The  old 
town  was  bathed  in  brilliant  sunshine  and  was  reflected 
dreamily  in  the  motionless  sea. 

At  the  time  of  my  arrival,  railhead  had  just 
reached  Tsavo,  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles 
from  the  coast.  Here  it  was  found  that  a  river,  fed 
from  the  everlasting  snows  of  Mount  Kilimanjaro, 
surged  across  the  track.  The  river  ran  in  the  center 
of  a  wide  and  deep  depression,  worn  away  in  the  course 
of  ages,  and  this  rift  had  to  be  spanned  by  means  of 
a  bridge.  I  was  deputied  to  build  this  bridge  and  to 
carry  out  all  the  engineering  works  in  the  district. 

After  spending  a  few  days  at  Mombasa,  I  set  out 
for  my  headquarters.  For  twenty  miles  or  so  after 
leaving  the  coast,  the  railway  wound  steadily  upwards 
through  beautifully  wooded,  park-like  country,  and,  on 
looking  back  out  of  the  carriage  window,  I  could  every 
now  and  then  obtain  lovely  views  of  Mombasa,  while 
beyond  the  Indian  Ocean  sparkled  in  the  glorious  sun- 
shine as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  Soon,  however, 
the  whole  character  of  the  country  changed.  Green, 
smiling,  well-wooded  uplands  gave  place  to  a  wilder- 

[91] 


4  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

ness  covered  with  bushy  scrub  and  stunted  trees,  and 
carpeted  with  a  layer  of  fine  red  dust  which  penetrated 
into  every  nook  and  cranny.  Towards  dusk  we 
reached  Tsavo  and  I  felt  somewhat  depressed  by  the 
desolation  and  loneliness  of  my  new  surroundings.  I 
slept  that  night  in  a  little  palm  hut  which  had  been 
built  by  some  previous  traveller,  and  which  was  for- 
tunately unoccupied  for  the  time  being.  It  was  rather 
broken-down  and  dilapidated,  not  even  possessing  a 
door,  and  as  I  lay  on  my  narrow  camp  bed  I  could  see 
the  stars  twinkling  through  the  broken  roof.  I  little 
knew  then  what  adventures  awaited  me  in  this  neigh- 
borhood; and,  if  I  had  realized  that  at  that  very  time 
two  savage  brutes  were  prowling  round,  seeking 
whom  they  might  devour,  I  hardly  think  I  should  have 
slept  so  peacefully. 

The  next  morning  I  was  up  betimes,  eager  to  make 
acquaintance  with  my  new  surroundings.  My  first  im- 
pression on  coming  out  of  the  hut  was  that  I  was 
hemmed  in  on  all  sides  with  a  dense  growth  of  impene- 
trable jungle;  on  scrambling  to  the  top  of  a  little  hill 
close  at  hand,  I  found  that  the  whole  country  as  far  as 
I  could  see  was  covered  with  low,  stunted  trees,  thick 
undergrowth  and  "wait-a-bit"  thorns.  The  only  clear- 
ing, indeed,  appeared  to  be  where  the  narrow  track 
for  the  railway  had  been  cut.  This  interminable  nyika, 
or  wilderness  of  whitish  and  leafless  dwarf  trees,  pre- 
sented a  ghastly  and  sun-stricken  appearance ;  here  and 
there  a  ridge  of  dark-red,  heat-blistered  rock  jutted 
out  above  the  jungle,  and  added  its  rugged  barren- 
ness to  the  dreariness  of  the  picture.  Away  to  the 
north-east  stretched  the  unbroken  line  of  the  N'dungu 
Escarpment,  while  far  off  to  the  south  I  could  just 
catch  a  glimpse  of  the  snow-capped  top  of  towering 
Kilimanjaro.  The  one  redeeming  feature  of  the  neigh- 
borhood was  the  river  from  which  Tsavo  takes  its 
name ;  this  is  a  swiftly-flowing  stream,  always  cool  and 

[92] 


Man-Eating  Lions  5 

always  running,  the  latter  being  an  exceptional  attri- 
bute in  this  part  of  East  Africa.  The  fringe  of  lofty- 
green  trees  along  its  banks  formed  a  welcome  relief 
to  the  general  monotony  of  the  landscape.  When  I  had 
thus  obtained  a  rough  idea  of  the  neighborhood,  I 
returned  to  my  hut,  and  began  in  earnest  to  make  prep- 
arations for  my  stay  in  this  outlandish  place.  The 
stores  were  unpacked,  and  my  "boys"  pitched  my  tent 
in  a  little  clearing  close  to  the  shelter  where  I  had 
slept  the  night  before  and  not  far  from  the  main  camp. 
Railhead  had  at  this  time  just  reached  the  western 
side  of  the  river,  and  some  thousands  of  Indian  coolies 
and  other  workmen  were  encamped  there.  As  the  line 
had  to  be  pushed  on  with  all  speed,  a  diversion  had 
been  made  and  the  river  crossed  by  means  of  a  tem- 
porary bridge.  My  principal  work  was  to  erect  the 
permanent  structure,  and  to  complete  all  the  other 
works  for  a  distance  of  thirty  miles  on  each  side  of 
Tsavo.  I  accordingly  made  a  survey  of  what  had  to 
be  done,  and  sent  my  requisition  for  labor,  tools  and 
material  to  the  headquarters  at  Kilindini.  Of  course 
the  natives  of  this  part  of  Africa  knew  nothing  about 
technical  work,  or  indeed  work  of  any  kind  save  carry- 
ing a  load  on  the  head,  so  the  great  majority  of  our 
artisans  and  laborers  had  to  be  imported  from  India. 
In  a  short  time  workmen  and  supplies  came  pouring 
in,  and  the  noise  of  hammers  and  sledges,  drilling  and 
blasting,  echoe'd  merrily  throughout  the  district. 

The  First  Victims. 
Unfortunately  this  happy  state  of  affairs  did  not 
continue  for  long,  and  our  work  was  soon  interrupted 
in  a  rude  and  startling  manner.  I  had  been  only  a  few 
days  at  Tsavo  when  one  or  two  workmen  mysteriously 
disappeared  and  I  was  told  that  they  had  been  carried 
off  from  their  tents  and  devoured  by  lions.  At  the 
time  I  did  not  credit  this  story  and  thought  it  much 

[93] 


6  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

more  likely  that  the  unfortunate  men  were  the  victims 
of  foul  play.  They  happened  to  be  very  good  work- 
men and  had  saved  a  fair  number  of  rupees,  so  I 
thought  it  quite  likely  that  some  scoundrels  from  the 
gangs  had  murdered  them  for  the  sake  of  their  money. 
This  suspicion,  however,  was  very  soon  dispelled. 

I  was  aroused  at  dawn  one  morning  by  a  man  who 
came  rushing  to  my  tent  to  tell  me  that  one  of  my 
jemadars — a  fine,  powerful  Sikh  named  Ungan  Singh 
— had  been  seized  during  the  night  and  carried  off  by 
a  huge  lion.  I  immediately  caught  up  my  rifle  and 
ran  to  the  spot  to  find  out  if  the  man's  story  was 
correct,  but  the  moment  I  reached  the  workers'  camp 
I  found  ample  evidence  that  the  gruesome  tale  was  all 
too  true.  The  lion's  "pug"  marks  were  plainly  visible 
in  the  sand,  while  the  furrows  made  by  the  heels  of 
the  unfortunate  victim  showed  the  direction  in  which 
he  had  been  dragged  away.  Moreover  one  of  the 
workmen  had  actually  witnessed  the  whole  occurrence 
which  he  quaintly  and  graphically  described. 

"Sahib,"  he  said,  "I  was  awake  and  lying  next  to 
the  jemadar,  who  was  asleep,  when  a  big  lion  put  his 
head  in  at  the  open  door.  My  heart  turned  to  water 
when  I  saw  him  so  near  me,  and  I  could  not  move.  He 
first  looked  at  me  and  then  at  Ungan  Singh,  and 
through  the  kindness  of  God  he  took  the  jemadar  by  the 
throat  instead  of  your  slave.  The  unfortunate  one  cried 
out  'Choro!'  (Let  go!),  and  threw  his  arm  up  around 
the  lion's  neck,  but  the  great  beast  dragged  him  from 
his  bed  and  carried  him  off  while  I  lay  paralyzed  with 
fear,  listening  to  the  terrible  struggle  which  went  on 
outside  the  tent  door.  The  jemadar  fought  hard,  but 
what  chance  had  he  ?    Was  he  not  fighting  with  a  lion  ?" 

After  hearing  this  vivid  account  of  the  tragedy,  I 
at  once  set  out  to  track  the  brute  and  in  a  short  time 
came  up  to  the  spot  where  he  had  devoured  the  unfor- 
tunate jemadar.    Here  a  dreadful  spectacle  presented 

[94] 


Man-Eating  Lions  7 

itself.  The  ground  all  about  was  covered  with  blood, 
morsels  of  flesh,  and  the  larger  bones,  but  the  head  was 
left  intact,  save  for  a  couple  of  holes  made  by  the 
lion's  tusks.  It  was  the  most  gruesome  sight  I  had 
ever  seen.  It  was  evident  from  the  marks  all  around 
that  two  lions  had  been  there  and  had  probably 
fought  for  possession  of  the  body.  I  collected  the  re- 
mains as  well  as  possible  and  buried  them  under  a 
heap  of  stones — the  horrified,  staring  eyes  of  the  sev- 
ered head  seeming  to  watch  me  all  the  time,  for  I  did 
not  bury  it,  but  took  it  back  to  camp  for  identification 
before  the  medical  officer.  Before  returning  I  traced 
the  lions  for  a  considerable  distance  further  along  the 
river,  but  finally  lost  all  trace  of  them  on  some  hard 
rocky  ground.  This  was  my  first  experience  of  the 
man-eaters  and  I  vowed  then  and  there  that  I  would 
spare  no  pains  to  rid  the  neighbourhood  of  the  brutes. 
I  little  knew  the  trouble  that  was  in  store  for  me,  or 
how  narrow  were  to  be  my  own  escapes  from  sharing 
poor  Ungan  Singh's  fate. 

That  same  night  I  sat  up  in  a  tree  close  to  the 
late  jemadar's  tent,  hoping  that  the  lions  would  return 
to  it  for  another  victim.  I  was  followed  to  my  perch 
by  a  few  of  the  more  terrified  coolies,  who  begged  to 
be  allowed  to  sit  up  in  the  tree  with  me ;  all  the  other 
workmen  remained  in  their  tents,  but  no  more  doors 
were  left  open.  I  had  with  me  my  .303  and  a  12-bore 
shotgun,  one  barrel  loaded  with  ball  and  the  other 
with  slug.  Shortly  after  settling  down  to  my  vigil,  my 
hopes  of  bagging  the  brutes  were  raised  by  the  sound 
of  their  ominous  roaring  coming  closer  and  closer. 
Presently  this  ceased,  and  quiet  reigned  for  an  hour 
or  two,  as  lions  always  stalk  their  prey  in  complete 
silence.  All  at  once,  however,  we  heard  a  great  uproar 
and  frenzied  cries  coming  from  another  camp  about 
half  a  mile  away;  we  knew  then  that  the  lions  had 

[95] 


8  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

seized  a  victim  there,  and  that  we  should  see  or  hear 
nothing  further  of  them  that  night. 

Next  morning  I  found  that  one  of  the  brutes  had 
broken  into  a  tent  at  Railhead  Camp — whence  we  had 
heard  the  commotion  during  the  night — and  had  made 
off  with  a  poor  wretch  who  was  lying  there  asleep. 
After  a  night's  rest,  therefore,  I  took  up  my  position 
in  a  suitable  tree  near  this  tent.  I  did  not  at  all  like 
the  idea  of  walking  the  half-mile  to  the  place  after 
dark,  but  I  felt  fairly  safe,  for  one  of  my  men  carried 
a  bright  lamp  close  behind  me.  He  in  his  turn  was 
followed  by  another  leading  a  goat,  which  I  tied  under 
my  tree  in  the  hope  that  the  lion  might  be  tempted 
to  seize  it  instead  of  a  workman.  A  steady  drizzle 
commenced  shortly  after  I  had  settled  down  to  my 
night  of  watching,  and  I  was  soon  thoroughly  chilled 
and  wet.  I  stuck  to  my  uncomfortable  post  however, 
hoping  to  get  a  shot,  but  I  well  remember  the  feeling 
of  bitter  disappointment  experienced  when  about  mid- 
night I  heard  screams  and  cries  and  a  heartrending 
shriek,  which  told  me  that  the  man-eaters  had  again 
eluded  me  and  had  claimed  another  victim  elsewhere. 

At  this  time  the  various  camps  of  the  workmen 
were  very  scattered,  so  the  lions  had  a  range  of  some 
eight  miles  on  either  side  of  Tsavo  to  work  upon ;  and 
as  their  tactics  seemed  to  be  to  break  into  a  different 
camp  each  night,  it  was  most  difficult  to  forestall  them. 
They  appeared  to  have  an  extraordinary  and  uncanny 
faculty  of  finding  out  our  plans  beforehand,  so  that  no 
matter  in  how  likely  or  how  tempting  a  spot  we  lay  in 
wait  for  them,  they  invariably  avoided  that  particular 
place  and  seized  their  victim  for  the  night  from  some 
other  camp. 

Hunting  them  by  day,  moreover,  in  such  a  dense 
wilderness  as  surrounded  us,  was  an  exceedingly  tiring 
and  really  foolhardy  undertaking.  In  a  thick  jungle 
of  the  kind  around  Tsavo,  the  hunted  animal  has  every 

[96] 


Man-Eating  Lions  9 

chance  against  the  hunter,  for  however  careful  the 
latter  may  be,  a  dead  twig  or  something  of  the  sort 
is  sure  to  crackle  just  at  the  critical  moment  and  so 
give  the  alarm.  Still  I  never  gave  up  hope  of  some 
day  finding  their  lair,  and  accordingly  devoted  all  my 
spare  time  to  crawling  about  through  the  undergrowth. 
Many  a  time  when  attempting  to  force  my  way  through 
this  bewildering  tangle  I  had  to  be  released  by  my 
gun-bearer  from  the  fast  clutches  of  the  "wait-a-bit" 
thorns.  Often  with  immense  pains  I  succeeded  in  trac- 
ing the  lions  to  the  river  after  they  had  seized  a  victim, 
only  to  lose  the  trail  from  there  onwards,  owing  to 
the  rocky  nature  of  the  ground  which  they  seemed  to 
be  careful  to  choose  in  retreating  to  their  den. 

At  this  early  stage  of  the  struggle,  I  am  glad  to 
say,  the  lions  were  not  always  successful  in  their  efforts 
to  capture  a  human  being  for  their  nightly  meal,  and 
one  or  two  amusing  incidents  occurred  to  relieve  the 
tension  from  which  our  nerves  were  beginning  to 
suffer.  On  one  occasion  an  enterprising  bunniah 
(Indian  trader)  was  riding  along  on  his  donkey  late 
at  night,  when  suddenly  a  lion  sprang  out  on  him, 
knocking  over  both  man  and  beast.  The  donkey  was 
badly  wounded,  and  the  lion  was  just  about  to  seize 
the  trader,  when  in  some  way  or  other  his  claws  be- 
came entangled  in  a  rope  by  which  two  empty  kerosene 
tins  were  strung  across  the  donkey's  neck.  The  rattle 
and  clatter  made  by  these  as  he  dragged  them  after 
him  gave  him  such  a  fright  that  he  turned  tail  and 
bolted  off  into  the  jungle,  to  the  intense  relief  of  the 
terrified  bunniah,  who  quickly  made  his  way  up  the 
nearest  tree  and  remained  there,  shivering  with  fear, 
throughout  the  night. 

Shortly  after  this  episode,  a  Greek  contractor 
named  Themistocles  Pappadimitrini  had  an  equally 
marvellous  escape.  He  was  sleeping  peacefully  in  his 
tent  one  night,  when  a  lion  broke  in,  and  seized  and 

[97] 


10  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

made  off  with  the  mattress  on  which  he  was  lying. 
Though  rudely  awakened,  the  Greek  was  quite  unhurt 
and  suffered  nothing  worse  than  a  bad  fright.  This 
same  man,  however,  met  with  a  melancholy  fate  not 
long  afterwards.  He  had  been  to  the  Kilimanjaro  dis- 
trict to  buy  cattle,  and  on  the  return  journey  attempted 
to  take  a  short  cut  across  country  to  the  railway,  but 
perished  miserably  of  thirst  on  the  way. 

On  another  occasion  fourteen  coolies,  who  slept 
together  in  a  large  tent,  were  one  night  awakened  by 
a  lion's  suddenly  jumping  upon  the  tent  and  breaking 
through  it.  The  brute  landed  with  one  claw  on  a 
coolie's  shoulder,  which  was  badly  torn;  but,  instead 
of  seizing  the  man  himself,  in  his  hurry  he  grabbed  a 
large  bag  of  rice  which  happened  to  be  lying  in  the 
tent,  and  made  off  with  it,  dropping  it  in  disgust  some 
little  distance  away  when  he  realized  his  mistake. 

These,  however,  were  only  the  earlier  efforts  of 
the  man-eaters.  Later  on,  as  will  be  seen,  nothing 
flurried  or  frightened  them  in  the  least,  and  save  as 
food  they  showed  a  complete  contempt  of  human 
beings.  Having  once  marked  down  a  victim,  they 
would  allow  nothing  to  deter  them  from  securing  him, 
whether  he  were  protected  by  a  thick  fence,  or  inside 
a  closed  tent,  or  sitting  round  a  brightly  burning  fire. 
Shots,  shouting  and  firebrands  they  alike  laughed  at. 
Their  methods  became  so  uncanny  and  their  man-stalk- 
ing so  well-timed  and  so  certain  of  success  that  the 
workmen  firmly  believed  that  they  were  not  real  ani- 
mals at  all,  but  devils  in  lions'  shape. 

A  Midnight  Attack. 

All  this  time  I  lived  in  a  small  tent  with  no  pro- 
tection of  any  kind  round  it,  not  yet  fully  realizing 
the  terrible  risk  I  ran.  Late  one  afternoon  a  medical 
officer,  Dr.  Rose,  arrived  at  Tsavo,  and  I  gave  him 
shelter  in  my  quarters.    During  the  night  I  was  awak- 

[98] 


Man-Eating  Lions  11 

ened  by  something  floundering  about  among  my  tent 
ropes.  I  shouted  out  "Who's  there?"  and  this  awoke 
Rose.  I  at  once  lit  a  lantern  and  we  both  went  out  to 
investigate  but  could  see  nothing,  so  we  retired  and 
slept  soundly  until  daylight.  In  the  morning  imagine 
our  feelings  when  we  saw  the  huge  "pug"  marks  of  a 
lion  around  and  around  the  tent!  He  had  evidently 
intended  to  make  a  meal  of  one  of  us,  but  got  entangled 
in  the  guy  ropes  while  getting  in  position  for  a  spring, 
and  this  fortunately  frightened  him  away. 

It  was  a  very  lucky  escape  for  us,  and,  warned 
by  this  experience,  I  at  once  changed  my  quarters  and 
moved  to  the  other  side  of  the  river  where  I  shared  a 
hut  with  my  friend,  Dr.  Brock,  who  was  in  medical 
charge  of  the  district.  It  was  constructed  of  palm 
leaves  and  boughs  and  was  situated  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  river,  close  to  the  old  caravan  route  leading 
to  Uganda.  We  had  it  surrounded  by  a  circular  boma 
or  thorn  fence,  about  seventy  yards  in  diameter,  well 
made,  and  thick  and  high.  Our  personal  servants  also 
lived  within  the  enclosure,  and  a  bright  fire  was  always 
kept  up  throughout  the  night.  For  the  sake  of  cool- 
ness, Brock  and  I  used  to  sit  out  under  the  verandah 
of  this  hut  in  the  evenings;  but  it  was  rather  trying 
to  our  nerves  to  attempt  to  read  or  write  there,  as  we 
never  knew  when  a  lion  might  spring  over  the  boma, 
and  be  on  us  before  we  were  aware.  We  therefore 
kept  our  rifles  within  easy  reach,  and  cast  many  an 
anxious  glance  out  into  the  inky  darkness  beyond  the 
circle  of  firelight.  On  one  or  two  occasions,  we  found 
in  the  morning  that  the  lions  had  come  quite  close  to 
the  fence;  but  fortunately  they  never  succeeded  in 
getting  through. 

By  this  time,  too,  the  camps  of  the  workmen  had 
also  been  surrounded  by  thorn  fences;  nevertheless 
the  lions  managed  to  jump  over  or  to  break  through 
some  one  or  other  of  these,  and  regularly  every  few 

[99] 


12  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

nights  a  man  was  carried  off,  the  reports  of  the  dis- 
appearance of  this  or  that  workman  coming  in  to  me 
with  painful  frequency.  So  long,  however,  as  Railhead 
Camp — with  its  two  or  three  thousand  men,  scattered 
over  a  wide  area — remained  at  Tsavo,  the  coolies  ap- 
peared not  to  take  much  notice  of  the  dreadful  deaths 
of  their  comrades.  Each  man  felt,  I  suppose,  that  as 
the  man-eaters  had  such  a  large  number  of  victims  to 
choose  from,  the  chances  of  their  selecting  him  in 
particular  were  very  small.  But  when  the  large  camp 
moved  farther  ahead,  matters  altered  considerably.  I 
was  then  left  with  only  a  few  hundred  men  to  complete 
the  permanent  works;  and  as  all  the  remaining  work- 
men were  naturally  camped  together,  the  attentions 
of  the  lions  became  more  apparent  and  made  deeper 
impression.  A  regular  panic  consequently  ensued,  and 
it  required  all  my  powers  of  persuasion  to  induce  the 
men  to  stay  on.  In  fact,  I  succeeded  in  doing  so  only 
by  allowing  them  to  knock  off  all  regular  work  until 
they  had  built  exceptionally  thick  and  high  bomas 
round  each  camp.  Within  these  enclosures  fires  were 
kept  burning  all  night,  and  it  was  also  the  duty  of  the 
night-watchman  to  keep  clattering  half  a  dozen  empty 
oil  tins  suspended  from  a  convenient  tree.  These  he 
manipulated  by  means  of  a  long  rope,  while  sitting  in 
safety  within  his  tent;  and  the  frightful  noise  thus 
produced  was  kept  up  at  frequent  intervals  during  the 
night  in  the  hopes  of  terrifying  the  man-eaters.  In 
spite  of  all  these  precautions,  however,  the  lions  would 
not  be  denied,  and  men  were  nightly  dragged  out  of 
their  tents  and  devoured. 

When  the  railhead  workmen  moved  on,  their  hos- 
pital camp  was  left  behind.  It  stood  rather  apart  from 
the  other  camps,  in  a  clearing  about  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  from  my  hut,  but  was  protected  by  a  good  thick 
fence  and  to  all  appearances  was  quite  secure.  It 
seemed,  however,  as  if  barriers  were  of  no  avail  against 

[100] 


Man-Eating  Lions  13 

the  "demons",  for  before  very  long  one  of  them  found 
a  weak  spot  in  the  boma  and  broke  through.  On  this 
occasion  the  Hospital  Assistant  had  a  marvellous  es- 
cape. Hearing  a  noise  outside,  he  opened  the  door  of 
his  tent  and  was  horrified  to  see  a  great  lion  standing 
a  few  yards  away  looking  at  him.  The  beast  made  a 
spring  toward  him,  which  gave  the  Assistant  such  a 
fright  that  he  jumped  backwards,  and  in  doing  so 
luckily  upset  a  box  containing  medical  stores.  This 
crashed  down  with  such  a  loud  clatter  of  breaking 
glass  that  the  lion  was  startled  for  a  moment  and 
made  off  for  another  part  of  the  enclosure.  Here, 
unfortunately,  he  was  more  successful,  as  he  jumped 
on  to  and  broke  through  a  tent  in  which  eight  patients 
were  lying.  Two  of  them  were  badly  wounded  in  the 
melee  which  ensued,  and  one  poor  wretch  was  seized 
and  dragged  off  bodily  through  the  thorn  fence.  The 
two  wounded  coolies  were  left  where  they  lay,  a  piece 
of  torn  tent  having  fallen  over  them ;  and  in  this  posi- 
tion the  doctor  and  I  found  them  on  our  arrival  soon 
after  dawn.  We  at  once  decided  to  move  the  hospital 
closer  to  the  main  camp ;  a  fresh  site  was  prepared,  a 
stout  hedge  built  round  the  enclosure,  and  all  the 
patients  were  moved  in  before  nightfall. 

I  decided  to  sit  up  all  night  in  the  vacated  boma 
in  the  hope  of  getting  an  opportunity  of  bagging  one 
of  them;  but  in  the  middle  of  my  lonely  vigil  I  had 
the  mortification  of  hearing  shrieks  and  cries  coming 
from  the  direction  of  the  new  hospital,  telling  me  only 
too  plainly  that  our  dreaded  foes  had  once  more  eluded 
me.  Hurrying  to  the  place  at  daylight,  I  found  that 
one  of  the  lions  had  jumped  over  the  newly  erected 
fence  and  had  carried  off  the  hospital  bhisti  (water- 
carrier),  and  that  several  other  coolies  had  been  un- 
willing witnesses  of  the  terrible  scene  which  took  place 
within  the  circle  of  light  given  by  the  big  camp  fire. 
The  bhisti,  it  appears,  had  been  lying  on  the  floor, 

[101] 


14  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

with  his  head  toward  the  center  of  the  tent  and  his 
feet  nearly  touching  the  side.  The  lion  managed  to 
get  its  head  in  below  the  canvas,  seized  him  by  the 
foot  and  pulled  him  out.  In  desperation  the  unfor- 
tunate water-carrier  clutched  hold  of  a  heavy  box  in 
a  vain  attempt  to  prevent  himself  being  carried  off, 
and  dragged  it  with  him  until  he  was  forced  to  let  go 
by  its  being  stopped  by  the  side  of  the  tent.  He  then 
caught  hold  of  a  tent  rope  and  clung  tightly  to  it  until 
it  broke.  As  soon  as  the  lion  managed  to  get  him  clear 
of  the  tent,  he  sprang  at  his  throat  and  after  a  few 
vicious  shakes  the  poor  bhisti's  agonized  cries  were 
silenced  forever.  The  brute  then  took  him  in  his  mouth 
and,  like  a  huge  cat  with  a  mouse,  ran  up  and  down 
the  boma,  looking  for  a  weak  spot  to  break  through. 
This  he  presently  found  and  plunged  into,  dragging 
his  victim  with  him  and  leaving  shreds  of  torn  cloth 
and  flesh  as  ghastly  evidences  of  his  passage  through 
the  thorns.  Dr.  Brock  and  I  were  easily  able  to  follow 
his  track,  and  soon  found  the  remains  about  four  hun- 
dred yards  away  in  the  bush.  There  was  the  usual 
horrible  sight.  Very  little  was  left  of  the  unfortunate 
bhisti — only  the  skull,  the  jaws,  a  few  of  the  larger 
bones  and  a  portion  of  the  palm  with  one  or  two  fingers 
attached.  On  one  of  these  was  a  silver  ring,  and  this, 
with  the  teeth  (a  relic  much  prized  by  certain  castes) , 
was  sent  to  the  man's  widow  in  India. 

Again  it  was  decided  to  move  the  hospital  and  a 
still  higher  and  stronger  boma  was  built  round  the 
new  site.  The  work  was  completed  and  all  patients 
carried  in  before  nightfall.  As  I  knew  that  lions  were 
in  the  habit  of  prowling  round  deserted  camps,  I  asked 
my  friend,  Brock,  to  join  me  and  watch  for  the  man- 
eater  near  the  vacated  hospital  enclosure.  A  railway 
track  ran  beside  it,  so  I  had  a  covered  freight  car 
shunted  to  the  entrance  and  in  this  we  took  up  our 
position  at  nightfall,  sitting  on  a  couple  of  boxes  just 

[102] 


Man-Eating  Lions  15 

inside  the  open  doorway.  When  I  now  think  of  the 
foolhardiness  of  this  procedure,  it  makes  me  shudder, 
but  at  that  time  I  did  not  realize  the  danger  we  ran 
or  that  the  man-eater  would  be  so  audacious  as  to  look 
upon  us  as  a  tempting  tit-bit  for  his  hungry  maw. 

I  had  put  some  cattle  into  the  deserted  hospital 
enclosure  and  left  a  few  tents  standing,  so  that  the 
lions  might  be  deceived  and  think  that  the  patients 
were  still  within  the  boma.  We  sat  in  the  car  for  a 
couple  of  hours  in  perfect  silence  enveloped  in  Stygian 
darkness,  and  then  I  plainly  heard  a  dry  stick  snap. 
"The  Man-Eater !"  I  whispered  to  Brock.  A  few  min- 
utes afterwards  we  heard  a  dull  thud  as  if  some  heavy 
body  had  jumped  over  the  boma.  Then  we  heard  the 
cattle  running  about.  After  that  everything  became 
still. 

I  now  proposed  to  my  companion  that  I  should 
climb  out  of  the  car  and  lie  on  the  ground,  so  as  to  get 
a  better  shot  at  the  brute,  if  he  should  come  in  our 
direction  with  his  prey;  but  Brock  persuaded  me  to 
remain  where  I  was  and,  thank  God,  I  took  his  advice, 
for,  at  that  very  moment  the  lion  was  actually  stalking 
us.  After  a  short  period  of  intense  gazing  into  the 
darkness,  I  thought  I  saw  something  glide  to  a  bush  in 
front  of  us.  In  a  whisper  I  asked  Brock,  "Did  you 
see  anything  move?"  but  he  made  no  reply,  so  I  held 
my  rifle  in  readiness  and  waited.  Those  two  or  three 
moments  I  shall  never  forget.  I  felt  instinctively  that 
the  uncanny  devil  was  stealing  stealthily  toward  us 
and  I  even  thought  I  could  discern  a  form  of  some 
kind,  but  I  feared  to  fire  lest  it  should  be  only  my 
imagination  running  away  with  me,  and  in  that  case 
I  should  merely  frighten  the  man-eater  away.  The 
darkness  and  silence  could  almost  be  felt  and  for  those 
few  seconds  the  strain  on  my  nerves  was  almost  un- 
endurable. Then — suddenly — a  huge  body  sprang  at 
us.     "The  lion!"  I  shouted,  and  both  our  shots  rang 

[103] 


16  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

out  simultaneously.  The  noise  and  flash  of  our  rifles 
so  terrified  the  brute  that,  instead  of  leaping  right  into 
the  car,  he  turned  in  his  spring,  but  he  got  so  close  to 
me  that  I  felt  the  wipe  of  his  paw  across  my  face.  If 
we  had  not  been  thoroughly  on  the  alert,  he  would  un- 
doubtedly have  got  one  of  us.  We  fired  a  few  more 
shots  into  the  darkness  in  order  to  prevent  a  second 
attack,  and  then  lit  a  lantern  and,  while  I  got  out  to 
close  the  door — trembling  all  the  time  lest  the  man- 
eater  should  grab  me — Brock  stood  ready  to  shoot. 

We  had  the  luckiest  escape  that  night  that  it  is 
possible  for  man  to  experience.  Only  our  keen  vigi- 
lance and  God's  good  providence  saved  one  or  both  of 
us  from  an  awful  fate.  Next  morning  we  found 
Brock's  bullet  embedded  in  the  sand,  close  to  a  foot- 
print; it  could  not  have  missed  the  lion  by  more  than 
an  inch  or  two.  Mine  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  Later 
on  I  found  that  my  bullet  had  shot  away  one  of  the 
lion's  tusks,  as  may  be  seen  on  examining  the  head. 

The  Lions  Hold  Up  the  Railway. 

The  lions  apparently  got  a  very  bad  fright  the 
night  Brock  and  I  gave  them  such  a  warm  reception 
in  the  freight  car,  for  they  kept  away  from  Tsavo 
and  did  not  molest  us  in  any  way  for  some  time.  Dur- 
ing the  breathing  space  which  they  vouchsafed  us, 
it  occurred  to  me  that,  if  they  should  renew  their  at- 
tacks, a  trap  would  perhaps  offer  the  best  method 
of  getting  to  grips  with  them,  and  if  I  could  construct 
one  in  which  a  couple  of  coolies  might  be  used  as  bait 
without  being  subjected  to  any  danger,  the  lions  would 
be  quite  daring  enough  to  enter  it  in  search  of  them 
and  thus  be  caught.  I  accordingly  set  to  work  at  once, 
and  in  a  short  time  managed  to  make  a  sufficiently 
strong  trap  out  of  wooden  sleepers,  tram-rails,  pieces 
of  telegraph  wire,  and  a  length  of  heavy  chain.  It 
was  divided  into  two  compartments — one  for  the  men 

[104] 


Man-Eating  Lions  17 

and  one  for  the  lion.  A  sliding  door  at  one  end  ad- 
mitted the  former,  and  once  inside  this  compartment 
they  were  perfectly  safe,  for  between  them  and  the 
lion,  if  he  should  attack  them,  ran  a  cross  wall  of  iron 
rails  only  three  inches  apart,  and  embedded  both  top 
and  bottom  in  heavy  wooden  sleepers.  The  door  which 
was  to  admit  the  lion  was,  of  course,  at  the  opposite 
end  of  the  structure,  but  otherwise  the  whole  thing 
was  very  much  on  the  principle  of  the  ordinary  rat- 
trap,  except  that  it  was  not  necessary  for  the  lion  to 
seize  the  bait  in  order  to  send  the  door  clattering 
down.  This  part  of  the  contrivance  was  arranged  in 
the  following  manner.  A  heavy  chain  was  secured  along 
the  top  part  of  the  lion's  doorway,  the  ends  hanging 
down  to  the  ground  on  either  side  of  the  opening ;  and 
to  these  were  fastened,  strongly  secured  by  stout  wire, 
short  lengths  of  rails  placed  about  six  inches  apart. 
This  made  a  sort  of  flexible  door  which  could  be  packed 
into  a  small  space  when  not  in  use,  and  which  abutted 
against  the  top  of  the  doorway  when  lifted  up.  The 
door  was  held  in  this  position  by  a  lever  made  of  a 
piece  of  rail,  which  in  turn  was  kept  in  its  place  by  a 
wire  fastened  to  one  end  and  passing  down  to  a  spring 
concealed  in  the  ground  inside  the  cage.  As  soon  as 
the  lion  entered  sufficiently  far  into  the  trap,  he  would 
be  bound  to  tread  on  the  spring;  his  weight  on  this 
would  release  the  wire,  and  in  an  instant  down  would 
come  the  door  behind  him;  and  he  could  not  push  it 
out  in  any  way,  as  it  fell  through  a  groove  between 
two  rails  firmly  embedded  in  the  ground. 

In  making  this  trap,  which  cost  us  a  lot  of  work, 
we  were  rather  at  a  loss  for  want  of  tools  to  bore  holes 
in  the  rails  for  the  doorway,  so  as  to  enable  them  to 
be  fastened  by  the  wire  to  the  chain.  It  occurred  to 
me,  however,  that  a  hard-nosed  bullet  from  my  .303 
would  penetrate  the  iron,  and,  on  making  the  experi- 

[106] 


18  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

ment,  I  was  glad  to  find  that  a  hole  was  made  as  cleanly 
as  if  it  had  been  punched  out. 

When  the  trap  was  ready,  I  pitched  a  tent  over 
it  in  order  further  to  deceive  the  lions,  and  built  an 
exceedingly  strong  boma  round  it.  One  small  entrance 
was  made  at  the  back  of  the  enclosure  for  the  men, 
which  they  were  to  close  on  going  in  by  pulling  a  bush 
after  them;  and  another  entrance  just  in  front  of  the 
door  of  the  cage  was  left  open  for  the  lions.  The 
wiseacres  to  whom  I  showed  my  invention  were  gen- 
erally of  the  opinion  that  the  man-eaters  would  be  too 
cunning  to  walk  into  my  parlour ;  but,  as  will  be  seen 
later,  their  predictions  proved  false.  For  the  first  few 
nights  I  baited  the  trap  myself,  but  nothing  happened 
except  that  I  had  a  very  sleepless  and  uncomfortable 
time,  and  was  badly  bitten  by  mosquitoes. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  some  months  before 
the  lions  attacked  us  again,  though  from  time  to  time 
we  heard  of  their  depredations  in  other  quarters.  Not 
long  after  our  night  in  the  freight  car,  two  men  were 
carried  off  from  the  railhead,  while  another  was  taken 
from  a  place  called  Engomani,  about  ten  miles  away. 
Within  a  short  time,  this  latter  place  was  again  visited 
by  the  brutes,  two  more  men  being  seized,  one  of 
whom  was  killed  and  eaten,  and  the  other  so  badly 
mauled  that  he  died  within  a  few  days.  As  I  have  said, 
however,  we  at  Tsavo  enjoyed  complete  immunity  from 
attack,  and  the  coolies,  believing  that  their  dreaded 
foes  had  permanently  deserted  the  district,  resumed 
all  their  usual  habits  and  occupations,  and  life  in  the 
camps  returned  to  its  normal  routine. 

At  last  we  were  suddenly  startled  out  of  this 
feeling  of  security.  One  dark  night  the  familiar  ter- 
ror-stricken cries  and  screams  awoke  the  camps,  and 
we  knew  that  the  "demons"  had  returned  and  had 
commenced  a  new  list  of  victims.    On  this  occasion  a 

[106] 


Man-Eating  Lions  19 

number  of  men  had  been  sleeping  outside  their  tents 
for  the  sake  of  coolness,  thinking,  of  course,  that  the 
lions  had  gone  for  good,  when  suddenly  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  one  of  the  brutes  was  discovered  forcing 
its  way  through  the  boma.  The  alarm  was  at  once 
given,  and  sticks,  stones  and  firebrands  were  hurled 
in  the  direction  of  the  intruder.  All  was  of  no  avail, 
however,  for  the  lion  burst  into  the  midst  of  the  terri- 
fied group,  seized  an  unfortunate  wretch  amid  the  cries 
and  shrieks  of  his  companions,  and  dragged  him  off 
through  the  thick  thorn  fence.  He  was  joined  outside 
by  the  second  lion,  and  so  daring  had  the  two  brutes 
become  that  they  did  not  trouble  to  carry  their  victim 
farther  away,  but  devoured  him  within  thirty  yards 
of  the  tent  where  he  had  been  seized.  Although  sev- 
eral shots  were  fired  in  their  direction  by  the  jemadar 
of  the  gang  to  which  the  coolie  belonged,  they  took  no 
notice  of  these  and  did  not  attempt  to  move  until  their 
horrible  meal  was  finished.  The  few  scattered  frag- 
ments that  remained  of  the  body  I  would  not  allow  to 
be  buried  at  once,  hoping  that  the  lions  would  return 
to  the  spot  the  following  night ;  on  the  chance  of  this 
I  took  up  my  station  at  nightfall  in  a  convenient  tree. 
Nothing  occurred  to  break  the  monotony  of  my  watch, 
however,  except  that  I  had  a  visit  from  a  hyena,  and 
the  next  morning  I  learned  that  the  lions  had  attacked 
another  camp  about  two  miles  from  Tsavo — for  by 
this  time  the  camps  were  again  scattered,  as  I  had 
works  in  progress  all  up  and  down  the  line.  There 
the  man-eaters  had  been  successful  in  obtaining  a 
victim,  whom,  as  in  the  previous  instance,  they  de- 
voured quite  close  to  the  camp.  How  they  forced  their 
way  through  the  bomas  without  making  a  noise  was, 
and  still  is,  a  mystery  to  me;  I  should  have  thought 
that  it  was  next  to  impossible  for  an  animal  to  get 
through  at  all.  Yet  they  continually  did  so,  and  with- 
out a  sound  being  heard. 

[107] 


20  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

After  this  occurrence,  I  sat  up  every  night  for 
over  a  week  near  likely  camps,  but  all  in  vain.  Either 
the  lions  saw  me  and  then  went  elsewhere,  or  else  I 
was  unlucky,  for  they  took  man  after  man  from  dif- 
ferent places  without  ever  once  giving  me  a  chance  of 
a  shot  at  them.  This  constant  night  watching  was 
most  dreary  and  fatiguing  work,  but  I  felt  that  it  was 
a  duty  that  had  to  be  undertaken,  as  the  men  naturally 
looked  to  me  for  protection.  In  the  whole  of  my  life  I 
have  never  experienced  anything  more  nerve-shaking 
than  to  hear  the  deep  roars  of  these  dreadful  monsters 
growing  gradually  nearer  and  nearer,  and  to  know 
that  someone  or  other  of  us  was  doomed  to  be  their 
victim  before  the  morning  dawned.  Once  they  reached 
the  vicinity  of  the  camps,  the  roars  completely  ceased, 
and  we  knew  they  were  stalking  their  prey.  Shouts 
would  then  pass  from  camp  to  camp,  "Khobar  dar, 
bhaieon,  shaitan  ata!"  (Beware,  brothers,  the  devil  is 
coming!),  but  the  warning  cries  would  prove  of  no 
avail,  and  sooner  or  later  agonizing  shrieks  would 
break  the  silence  and  another  man  would  be  missing 
from  roll-call  next  morning. 

I  have  a  very  vivid  recollection  of  one  particular 
night  when  the  brutes  seized  a  man  from  the  railway 
station  and  brought  him  close  to  my  camp  to  devour. 
I  could  plainly  hear  them  crunching  the  bones,  and  the 
sound  of  their  dreadful  purring  filled  the  air  and  rang 
in  my  ears  for  days  afterwards.  The  terrible  thing 
was  to  feel  so  helpless;  it  was  useless  to  attempt  to 
go  out,  as  of  course  the  poor  fellow  was  dead,  and  in 
addition  it  was  so  pitch  dark  as  to  make  it  impossible 
to  see  anything.  Some  half  a  dozen  workmen,  who 
lived  in  a  small  enclosure  close  to  mine,  became  so 
terrified  on  hearing  the  lions  at  their  meal  that  they 
shouted  and  implored  me  to  allow  them  to  come  inside 
my  boma.  This  I  willingly  did,  but  soon  afterwards  I 
remembered  that  one  man  had  been  lying  ill  in  their 

[108] 


Man-Eating  Lions  21 

camp,  and  on  making  inquiry  I  found  that  they  had 
callously  left  him  behind  alone.  I  immediately  took 
some  men  with  me  to  bring  him  to  my  boma,  but  on 
entering  his  tent  I  saw  by  the  light  of  the  lantern 
that  the  poor  fellow  was  beyond  need  of  safety.  He 
had  died  of  shock  at  being  deserted  by  his  companions. 

From  this  time  on  matters  gradually  became 
worse.  Almost  every  morning  some  workmen  or  other 
would  come  to  my  tent  to  tell  me  of  a  raid  he  had  wit- 
nessed when  one  of  his  comrades  had  been  carried  off. 
One  day  an  Indian  artisan  who  had  been  acting  as 
watchman  came  to  my  tent,  still  shivering  with  fear, 
to  report  what  had  occurred  during  the  night.  In  the 
early  hours  of  the  morning,  he  said,  he  was  sitting  on 
top  of  a  high  pile  of  wooden  sleepers  when  he  saw  the 
man-eater,  silent  as  a  ghost,  emerge  from  the  jungle, 
and  stalk  toward  a  truck  where  some  of  his  comrades 
were  sleeping.  Instantly  he  gave  a  warning  cry, 
shouting  as  loudly  as  possible  and  at  the  same  time 
rattling  some  empty  kerosene  tins  which  he  had  with 
him  for  the  purpose.  On  hearing  the  noise,  the  lion 
dived  for  cover  under  some  wagons.  The  startled 
workmen  jumped  up  and  looked  round  in  all  directions 
but  could  see  no  trace  of  the  man-eater.  The  brute 
had  quietly  slipped  under  a  train,  the  engine  of  which 
happened  to  be  taking  water  at  a  siding,  and  presently 
the  watchman  saw  him  standing  in  front  of  an  open 
car  in  which  a  sick  engineer,  on  his  way  to  the  coast, 
was  lying.  The  man-eater  was  just  gathering  himself 
for  a  spring  at  the  invalid,  when  the  fireman  by  a  lucky 
chance  threw  some  slag  out  of  his  fire-box  on  to  a 
heap  of  rails  that  happened  to  be  stacked  there,  and 
this  scared  the  brute  away  for  the  moment. 

He  presently  reappeared,  however,  beside  the 
truck  in  which  the  workmen  whom  he  had  first  stalked 
were  lying  and,  before  the  watchman  had  time  to  utter 
another  warning  cry,  he  had  leaped  in  amongst  them 

[109] 


22  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

and  seized  his  victim.  Shaking  the  unfortunate  man  as 
a  terrier  would  a  rat,  he  carried  him  off  shrieking, 
and  devoured  him  not  two  hundred  yards  away  in  the 
depths  of  the  gloomy  jungle. 

Hitherto  as  a  rule,  only  one  of  the  man-eaters  had 
made  the  attack  and  had  done  the  foraging,  while  the 
other  waited  outside  in  the  bush ;  but  now  they  began 
to  change  their  tactics,  entering  the  bomas  together 
and  each  seizing  a  victim.  In  this  way  two  Swahili 
porters  were  killed,  one  being  immediately  carried  off 
and  devoured.  The  other  was  heard  moaning  for  a 
long  time,  and  when  his  terrified  companions  at  last 
summoned  up  sufficient  courage  to  go  to  his  assistance, 
they  found  him  stuck  fast  in  the  bushes  of  the  boma, 
through  which  for  once  the  lion  had  apparently  been 
unable  to  drag  him.  He  was  still  alive  when  I  saw 
him  next  morning,  but  so  terribly  mauled  that  he  died 
before  he  reached  the  hospital. 

Within  a  few  days  of  this,  the  two  brutes  made  a 
most  ferocious  attack  on  the  largest  camp  in  the  sec- 
tion, which  for  safety's  sake  was  situated  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  Tsavo  Station  and  close  to  a  Perma- 
nent Way  Inspector's  iron  hut.  Suddenly  in  the  dead 
of  night,  the  two  man-eaters  burst  in  among  the  terri- 
fied workmen,  and  even  from  my  boma,  some  distance 
away,  I  could  plainly  hear  the  panic-stricken  shrieking 
of  the  coolies.  Then  followed  cries  of  "They've  taken 
him ;  they've  taken  him !"  as  the  brutes  carried  off  their 
unfortunate  victim  and  began  their  horrible  feast  close 
beside  the  camp.  The  Inspector,  Mr.  Dalgairns,  fired 
over  fifty  shots  in  the  direction  in  which  he  heard  the 
lions,  but  they  were  not  to  be  frightened  and  calmly 
lay  there  until  their  meal  was  finished.  After  exam- 
ining the  spot  in  the  morning,  we  at  once  set  out  to 
follow  the  brutes,  Mr.  Dalgairns  feeling  confident  that 
he  had  wounded  one  of  them,  as  there  was  a  trail  on 
the  sand  like  that  of  the  toes  of  a  broken  limb.    After 

[no] 


Man-Eating  Lions  23 

some  careful  stalking,  we  suddenly  found  ourselves  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  lions  and  were  greeted  with  ominous 
growlings.  Cautiously  advancing  and  pushing  the 
bushes  aside,  we  saw  in  the  gloom  what  we  at  first  took 
to  be  a  lion  cub;  closer  inspection,  however,  showed 
it  to  be  the  remains  of  the  unfortunate  coolie,  which 
the  man-eaters  had  evidently  abandoned  at  our  ap- 
proach. The  legs,  one  arm  and  half  of  the  body  had 
been  eaten,  and  it  was  the  stiff  fingers  of  the  other 
arm  trailing  along  the  sand  which  had  left  the  marks 
we  had  taken  to  be  the  trail  of  a  wounded  lion.  By 
this  time  the  beasts  had  retired  far  into  the  thick 
jungle  where  it  was  impossible  to  follow  them,  so  we 
had  the  remains  of  the  coolie  buried  and  once  more 
returned  home  disappointed. 

Now  the  bravest  men  in  the  world,  much  less  the 
ordinary  Indian  coolie,  will  not  stand  constant  terrors 
of  this  sort  indefinitely.  The  whole  district  was  by 
this  time  thoroughly  panic-stricken  and  I  was  not  at 
all  surprised,  therefore,  to  find  on  my  return  to  camp 
that  same  afternoon,  that  the  men  had  all  struck  work 
and  were  waiting  to  speak  to  me.  When  I  sent  for 
them,  they  flocked  to  my  boma  in  a  body  and  told  me 
that  they  would  not  remain  at  Tsavo  any  longer  for 
anything  or  anybody ;  they  stated  that  they  had  "come 
from  India  on  an  agreement  to  work  for  the  Govern- 
ment, not  to  supply  food  for  either  lions  or  devils." 
No  sooner  had  they  delivered  this  ultimatum  than  a 
regular  stampede  took  place.  Some  hundreds  of  them 
stopped  the  first  passing  train  by  throwing  themselves 
prostrate  on  the  rails  in  front  of  the  engine,  and  then, 
swarming  on  to  the  flat-cars,  they  fled  from  the  ac- 
cursed spot. 

Abdullah's  Tragic  Fate. 

After  the  flight  of  the  workmen,  the  building  of 
the  railway  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tsavo  was  com- 

[ui] 


24  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

pletely  stopped,  and  for  some  weeks  practically  nothing 
was  done  but  erect  "lion  proof"  huts  for  those  few 
stout-hearted  fellows  who  had  sufficient  courage  to  re- 
main. It  was  a  strange  and  amusing  sight  to  see  men 
perched  on  the  top  of  water-tanks,  roofs  and  girders 
— anywhere  for  safety.  One  enterprising  coolie  made  a 
three  story  apartment  on  a  water  tank  which  he  rented 
out  at  great  profit  to  himself;  others  dug  out  pits 
inside  their  tents  into  which  they  descended  at  night, 
covering  the  top  over  with  heavy  logs  of  wood.  Every 
good-sized  tree  in  the  camp  had  as  many  beds  lashed 
to  it  as  it  would  bear.  I  remember  that  one  night  when 
the  camp  was  attacked,  so  many  men  swarmed  up  one 
particular  tree  that  it  came  down  with  a  crash,  hurling 
its  terror-stricken  load  of  shrieking  coolies  close  to  the 
very  lions  they  were  trying  to  avoid.  Fortunately  for 
them,  however,  the  man-eaters  had  already  seized  a 
victim  and  they  were  so  busy  devouring  him  that 
they  paid  no  attention  to  anything  else. 

About  this  time  I  invited  Mr.  Whitehead,  the  Dis- 
trict Officer  who  lived  some  thirty  miles  away,  to  come 
and  assist  me  in  my  campaign  against  the  man-eaters. 
He  accepted  the  invitation  and  told  me  to  expect  him 
towards  evening  in  time  for  dinner.  His  train  was  due 
at  six  o'clock,  so  I  sent  my  Indian  servant  up  to  the 
station  to  meet  him.  In  a  short  time  he,  came  rushing 
back,  trembling  with  terror,  to  inform  me  that  there 
was  no  sign  of  the  train  or  of  any  of  the  railway  staff, 
but  that  a  big  lion  was  walking  up  and  down  the  plat- 
form. "Nonsense,"  I  replied,  "it  is  probably  a  jackal," 
for  I  did  not  for  a  moment  believe  his  story.  Every- 
body was  in  such  a  state  of  panic  that,  if  even  a  squir- 
rel had  been  seen  on  the  platform,  it  would  have  been 
magnified  into  a  lion.  As  a  matter  of  fact  I  found  out 
next  morning  that  my  servant's  story  was  perfectly 
true,  and  both  the  Station  Master  and  his  men  had 

[112] 


Man-Eating  Lions  25 

been  obliged  to  take  refuge  from  the  man-eater  by 
locking  themselves  in  the  station  building. 

As  Whitehead  did  not  turn  up,  I  ate  my  dinner 
alone.  During  the  course  of  the  meal  I  heard  the  re- 
port of  a  couple  of  shots,  but  I  paid  no  heed  to  them, 
for  guns  had  been  issued  to  the  headmen  of  the  gangs 
to  scare  away  the  lions,  and  shooting  was  a  common 
occurrence  after  nightfall. 

Shortly  after  dusk  I  went  out  and  took  up  my 
position  on  a  crib  made  of  sleepers,  perched  on  the  end 
of  a  girder.  Soon  after  settling  down  at  my  post,  I  was 
surprised  to  hear  the  man-eaters  growling  and  purring 
and  crunching  up  bones  about  seventy  yards  from 
where  I  was  sitting.  I  could  not  understand  what  they 
had  found  to  eat,  for  I  had  heard  no  commotion  in  the 
camps,  and  I  knew  by  bitter  experience  that  every 
meal  the  brutes  obtained  was  announced  by  shrieks 
and  uproar.  The  only  conclusion  I  could  come  to  was 
that  they  had  pounced  upon  some  poor  unsuspecting 
native  traveller.  After  a  time  I  was  able  to  make  out 
their  eyes  glowing  in  the  darkness,  so  I  took  as  care- 
ful aim  as  possible  and  fired.  The  only  notice  they 
took  was  to  carry  off  whatever  they  were  eating  and 
retire  quietly  over  a  slight  ridge  which  hid  them  from 
my  view.  As  soon  as  it  was  daylight,  I  got  out  of  my 
crib  and  went  towards  the  place  where  I  had  heard 
the  growling  and  on  the  way,  whom  should  I  meet  but 
my  missing  guest,  Mr.  Whitehead,  looking  very  pale 
and  ill  and  generally  dishevelled. 

"Where  on  earth  have  you  come  from?"  I  ex- 
claimed. "Why  didn't  you  turn  up  to  dinner  last 
night  ?" 

"A  nice  reception  you  give  a  fellow  when  you  in- 
vite him  to  dinner,"  was  his  reply. 

"Why,  what's  up?"  I  asked. 

"That  infernal  lion  of  yours  jumped  on  me  and 
nearly  did  for  me  last  night,"  said  Whitehead. 

[113] 


26  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

"Nonsense!"  I  cried  in  astonishment,  "you  must 
have  dreamt  it." 

"That's  not  much  of  a  dream,  is  it?"  he  asked, 
turning  round  and  showing  me  his  back. 

His  clothing  was  rent  by  one  huge  tear  from  the 
nape  of  his  neck  downwards,  and  on  the  bare  flesh 
there  were  four  great  claw  marks  showing  red  and 
angry  through  the  torn  cloth. 

Without  further  parley  I  hurried  him  off  to  my 
tent,  where  I  bathed  and  dressed  his  wounds,  and, 
when  I  had  made  him  considerably  more  comfortable, 
I  got  from  him  the  whole  story  of  the  events  of  the 
night.  It  appeared  that  his  train  was  very  late,  so  it 
was  quite  dark  when  he  arrived  at  Tsavo  station. 
He  set  out  on  foot  along  the  railway  to  my  camp,  ac- 
companied by  Abdullah  his  sergeant  of  Askaris  (na- 
tive police),  who  walked  close  behind  him  carrying  a 
lighted  lantern.  All  went  well  until  they  were  about 
half-way  through  a  gloomy  cutting,  when  the  man- 
eater  suddenly  jumped  down  on  them  from  the  high 
bank,  knocking  Whitehead  over  like  a  ninepin  and 
tearing  his  back  in  the  manner  I  have  described.  For- 
tunately, however,  my  friend  had  his  rifle  with  him 
and  instantly  fired.  The  flash  and  the  loud  report  must 
have  dazed  the  lion  for  a  second  or  two,  enabling 
Whitehead  to  disengage  himself;  but  the  next  instant 
the  brute  pounced  like  lightning  on  the  unfortunate 
Abdullah  with  whom  he  at  once  bounded  up  the  bank 
and  made  off  into  the  bush.  All  that  the  poor  fellow 
could  say  was,  "Eh,  bwana,  simba"  (Oh,  master,  a 
lion.) 

The  Lion  Trapped. 

On  the  day  following  poor  Abdullah's  tragic  death, 
the  forces  arrayed  against  the  man-eaters  were  further 
increased.  Mr.  Farquhar,  the  Superintendent  of  Police, 
arrived  from  the  coast  with  a  score  of  sepoys  (Indian 
soldiers)  to  assist  in  hunting  down  the  lions  whose 

[114] 


Man-Eating  Lions  27 

fame  had  by  this  time  spread  far  and  wide.  We 
made  elaborate  plans  for  a  combined  offensive  against 
the  man-eaters  and  posted  men  on  the  most  conven- 
ient trees  near  every  camp.  Several  other  officials 
also  came  up  on  leave  to  join  in  the  chase  and  each  of 
these  guarded  a  likely  spot  in  the  same  way,  Mr. 
Whitehead  sharing  my  post  inside  the  crib  on  the 
girder.  Also  my  lion  trap  was  put  into  thorough  work- 
ing order,  and  two  of  the  sepoys  were  installed  as  bait. 
Our  preparations  were  quite  complete  by  nightfall, 
when  we  took  up  our  appointed  positions. 

Nothing  happened  until  about  9  o'clock  when,  to 
my  great  satisfaction,  the  intense  stillness  was  sud- 
denly broken  by  the  noise  of  the  door  of  the  lion  trap 
clattering  down. 

"By  Jove,  Whitehead !"  I  exclaimed,  "one  of  them 
is  caught." 

But,  alas,  for  my  hopes,  the  sequel  proved  an 
inglorious  one.  The  bait-sepoys  had  a  lamp  burning 
inside  their  part  of  the  cage,  and  were  each  armed 
with  a  Martini  rifle  and  provided  with  plenty  of  am- 
munition. They  had  been  given  strict  orders  to  shoot 
at  once  if  a  lion  should  enter  the  trap.  Instead  of 
doing  so,  however,  they  were  so  terrified  when  the 
ferocious  beast  rushed  at  them  and  finding  himself 
trapped  began  to  lash  himself  madly  against  the  bars 
of  the  cage,  that  they  completely  lost  their  heads-  and 
were  actually  too  unnerved  to  fire.  Not  for  some 
minutes — not  indeed  until  Farquhar,  whose  post  was 
close  by,  shouted  at  them  and  cheered  them  on — did 
they  at  all  recover  themselves.  Then,  when  at  last 
they  did  begin  to  shoot,  they  shot  with  a  vengeance, 
anyhow,  anywhere, — except  at  the  lion!  Whitehead 
and  I  were  at  right  angles  to  the  direction  in  which 
they  should  have  fired,  and  yet  their  bullets  came 
whizzing  all  round  us.  Altogether  they  fired  over  a 
score  of  shots  and  in  the  end  succeeded  in  blowing 

[115] 


28  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

away  one  of  the  bars  of  the  cage,  and  through  this 
opening  the  man-eater  calmly  walked  out!  How  they 
failed  to  kill  him  several  times  over,  is,  and  always 
will  be,  a  complete  mystery  to  me,  for  they  could 
actually  have  put  the  muzzles  of  their  rifles  on  to  the 
lion's  body. 

Of  course,  after  this  fiasco,  the  men  were  more 
firmly  convinced  than  ever  that  we  were  at  grips  with 
the  Devil  himself.  We  were  not  unduly  dejected, 
however,  and  when  morning  dawned  a  hunt  was  at 
once  arranged.  Accordingly  we  spent  the  greater  part 
of  the  day  on  our  hands  and  knees  endeavoring  to 
track  the  lions  through  the  dense  thickets  of  thorny 
jungle,  but,  though  we  heard  their  growls  from  time 
to  time,  we  never  succeeded  in  coming  up  with  them. 
Indeed,  of  the  whole  party  only  Farquhar  managed 
to  catch  a  glimpse  of  one  as  it  bounded  over  a  bush. 
Two  more  days  were  spent  in  the  same  manner  and 
with  equal  lack  of  success,  and  then  Farquhar  and  his 
sepoys  were  obliged  to  return  to  the  coast.  Mr.  White- 
head also  departed  for  his  district,  and  once  again  I 
was  left  alone  with  the  man-eaters. 

Victory  at  Last. 

A  day  or  two  after  the  departure  of  my  allies, 
as  I  was  leaving  my  boma  soon  after  dawn,  I  saw  a 
native  running  excitedly  toward  me  shouting  out 
"Simba,  bwana,  simba!"  (The  lion,  master,  the  lion!), 
and  every  now  and  then  looking  behind  him  as  he 
ran.  On  questioning  him,  I  found  that  one  of  the  man- 
eaters  had  tried  to  break  into  the  camp  by  the  river, 
but,  being  foiled  in  this,  had  just  seized  and  killed 
a  donkey  and  was  at  that  moment  devouring  it  in  the 
jungle  close  at  hand. 

Now  was  my  chance.  I  rushed  for  the  heavy 
rifle  which  Farquhar  had  left  me  in  case  an  opportun- 
ity such  as  this  should  arise,  and  then,  led  by  the 

[116] 


COOLIES  AT  ENTRANCE  OF  THEIR  BOMA.     (Seep.  12.) 


TENT  FROM  WHICH  MAN  WAS  TAKEN.     (See  p.  22.) 


Man-Eating  Lions  29 

Swahili,  I  started  off  with  the  fervent  hope  that  the 
Lord  would  deliver  the  man-eater  into  my  hands.  My 
pulse  was  beating  much  faster  than  usual,  as  I  care- 
fully stalked  the  dreaded  beast.  I  crouched  and 
crawled  from  bush  to  bush,  very  anxious  lest  I  should 
be  discovered.  In  a  short  time  I  had  the  satisfaction 
of  hearing  him  crunching  up  the  donkey's  bones  and 
then,  after  a  further  short  stalk,  I  saw  the  head  of 
the  lion  faintly  outlined  in  the  undergrowth,  but  some 
uncanny  influence  seemed  to  guard  this  demon,  for, 
as  I  was  taking  a  careful  bead  on  him,  my  guide  put 
his  foot  on  a  rotten  branch,  and  the  wary  beast, 
hearing  the  noise,  growled  his  defiance  and,  before 
I  had  time  to  press  the  trigger,  disappeared  into  a 
patch  of  thick  jungle. 

In  desperation  at  the  thought  of  his  escaping  me 
once  again,  I  ran  back  to  camp,  summoned  all  the 
available  workmen  and  told  them  to  bring  every  tom- 
tom, flute,  tin  can  and  other  noisy  instrument  that 
could  be  found.  As  quickly  as  possible  I  posted  them 
in  a  half  circle  as  near  as  was  safe  to  the  spot  where 
the  lion  was  hiding,  and  gave  the  head  jemadar  in- 
structions to  start  a  simultaneous  shouting  and  beat- 
ing of  the  tom-toms  and  cans,  as  soon  as  I  had  time 
to  get  around  to  the  other  side.  I  then  circled  rapidly 
behind  the  lion  where  I  found  a  good  position  beside 
an  ant-hill  which  the  brute  was  very  likely  to  pass 
when  he  left  his  hiding  place,,  for  it  was  in  the  middle 
of  a  broad  animal  path  leading  straight  from  his  lair. 
I  knelt  behind  the  ant-hill  and  waited  expectantly. 

Soon  I  heard  a  tremendous  din  being  raised  by 
the  advancing  workmen  and,  almost  immediately,  to 
my  intense  joy,  out  into  the  open  path  stepped  a 
huge  maneless  lion.  It  was  the  first  time,  during  all 
these  trying  months,  that  I  had  obtained  a  fair  chance 
of  a  shot  and  my  satisfaction  at  the  prospect  of  bag- 
ging the  man-eater  was  unbounded.    Slowly  and  very 

[117] 


30  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

majestically  he  advanced  along  the  path,  stopping 
every  few  seconds  to  look  round.  I  was  fascinated 
at  the  sight  and  remained  motionless  as  a  statue.  I 
was  only  partly  concealed  from  view,  and,  if  his  at- 
tention had  not  been  so  fully  occupied  by  the  noise 
behind  him,  he  must  have  observed  me.  As  he  was 
oblivious  to  my  presence,  however,  I  let  him  approach 
to  within  about  fifteen  yards  of  me  and  then  quickly 
covered  him  with  my  rifle.  The  moment  I  moved 
the  weapon,  he  caught  sight  of  me  and  seemed 
very  much  astonished  at  my  sudden  appearance,  for 
he  stuck  his  forefeet  into  the  ground,  threw  himself 
back  on  his  haunches,  opened  his  jaws  wide  and 
growled  savagely.  As  I  sighted  the  rifle  on  his  brain 
I  felt  that,  at  last,  I  had  him  absolutely  at  my  mercy 
but — never  trust  an  untried  weapon!  I  pressed  the 
trigger  and,  to  my  horror,  heard  the  dull  snap  that 
tells  of  a  misfire !  Fortunately  for  me  the  lion  was  so 
distracted  by  the  terrific  din  and  uproar  made  by  the 
coolies  behind  him  that  instead  of  springing  upon  me 
as  I  expected,  he  bounded  aside  into  the  jungle  and 
once  more  escaped.  Bitterly  did  I  anathematise  the 
hour  in  which  I  had  relied  upon  a  borrowed  weapon, 
and  in  my  vexation  I  abused  owner,  maker,  and  rifle 
with  fine  impartiality. 

After  this  dismal  failure  there  was,  of  course, 
nothing  to  do  but  return  to  camp.  Before  doing  so, 
however,  I  proceeded  to  view  the  dead  donkey  which 
I  found  to  have  been  only  partly  eaten  at  the  quarters. 
It  is  a  curious  fact  that  lions  always  begin  at  the  tail 
end  of  their  prey  and  eat  upwards  toward  the  head. 
As  his  meal  had  thus  been  interrupted,  evidently  at 
the  very  beginning,  I  felt  pretty  sure  that  the  hungry 
brute  would  return  to  the  carcass  at  nightfall.  Ac- 
cordingly, as  there  was  no  suitable  tree  close  at  hand, 
I  had  a  staging  erected  some  ten  feet  away  from  the 
dead  animal.    This  machan  was  about  twelve  feet  high 

[118] 


Man-Eating  Lions  31 

and  was  composed  of  four  poles  stuck  into  the  ground 
and  inclined  toward  each  other  at  the  top,  where  a 
plank  was  lashed  to  serve  as  a  seat.  Further,  as  the 
nights  were  still  pitch  dark,  I  had  the  donkey's  carcass 
secured  by  strong  wires  to  a  neighboring  stump,  so 
that  the  lion  might  not  be  able  to  drag  it  away  before 
I  could  get  a  shot  at  him. 

At  sundown  I  took  up  my  position  on  the  flimsy 
perch  and,  much  to  the  disgust  of  my  gun-bearer,  Ma- 
hina,  I  decided  to  go  alone.  I  would  gladly  have  taken 
him  with  me,  indeed,  but  he  had  a  bad  cough  and  I 
was  afraid  lest  he  should  make  any  involuntary  noise 
or  movement  which  might  spoil  all.  Darkness  fell 
almost  immediately  and  everything  became  extra- 
ordinarily still.  The  silence  of  an  African  jungle  on 
a  dark  night  needs  to  be  experienced  to  be  realized. 
It  is  most  impressive,  especially  when  one  is  absolutely 
alone  and  isolated  from  his  kind.  The  solitude  and 
stillness,  and  the  purpose  of  my  vigil,  all  had  their 
effect  on  me,  and  from  a  condition  of  strained  ex- 
pectancy, I  gradually  fell  into  a  dreamy  mood  which 
harmonized  well  with  my  surroundings.  Suddenly  I 
was  startled  out  of  my  reverie  by  the  snapping  of  a 
twig,  and,  straining  my  ears  for  a  further  sound,  I 
fancied  that  I  could  hear  the  rustling  of  a  large  body 
forcing  its  way  through  the  bush.  "The  Man-eater!" 
I  thought  to  myself,  "surely  tonight  my  luck  will 
change  and  I  shall  bag  one  of  the  brutes."  Profound 
silence  again  followed.  I  sat  on  my  perch  like  a  statue, 
every  nerve  tense  with  excitement.  Very  soon  all  doubt 
as  to  the  presence  of  the  man-eater  was  dispelled.  A 
deep  long-drawn  sigh — sure  sign  of  hunger — came  up 
from  the  bushes,  and  the  rustling  commenced  again, 
as  he  cautiously  advanced.  In  a  moment  or  two  a 
sudden  stop,  followed  by  an  angry  growl,  told  me  that 
my  presence  had  been  noticed,  and  I  began  to  fear 
that  disappointment  awaited  me  once  more.    But  no; 

[119] 


32  Field  Museum  op  Natural  History 

events  now  took  a  turn  which  made  my  blood  run  cold, 
for,  instead  of  either  making  off,  or  coming  for  his 
kill,  the  lion  began  stealthily  to  stalk  me! 

For  about  two  hours  he  horrified  me  by  slowly 
creeping  round  and  round  my  crazy  structure,  gradu- 
ally edging  his  way  nearer  and  nearer.  Every  moment 
I  expected  him  to  rush  the  staging ;  and  it  had  not  been 
constructed  with  an  eye  to  such  a  possibility.  If  one 
of  the  rather  flimsy  poles  should  break,  or  if  the  lion 
could  spring  the  twelve  feet  which  separated  me  from 
the  ground  .  .  .  the  thought  was  not  a  pleasant  one. 
I  remember  saying  to  myself,  "There  is  a  dead  donkey 
down  there,  but  if  ever  there  was  a  real  live  one, 
here  he  sits."  I  began  to  feel  distinctly  "creepy"  and 
heartily  repented  my  folly  in  having  placed  myself 
all  alone  in  such  a  dangerous  position.  I  kept  per- 
fectly still,  hardly  daring  even  to  blink  my  eyes,  but 
the  long  continued  strain  began  to  tell  on  my  nerves; 
and  my  feelings  can  better  be  imagined  than  described, 
when  just  about  midnight  something  came  flop  and 
hit  me  on  the  back  of  the  head.  For  a  moment  I  was 
so  terrified  that  I  nearly  fell  off  the  plank,  for  I 
thought  that  the  lion  had  sprung  on  me  from  behind. 
Regaining  my  senses  in  a  second  or  two,  I  realized 
that  I  had  been  hit  by  nothing  more  formidable  than 
an  owl,  which  had  doubtless  mistaken  me  for  the 
branch  of  a  tree.  Not  a  very  alarming  thing  to  happen 
in  ordinary  circumstances,  I  admit,  but  coming  at 
the  time  it  did,  it  almost  paralyzed  me.  The  invol- 
untary start,  which  I  could  not  help  giving,  was  im- 
mediately answered  by  a  sinister  growl  from  below. 
After  this  I  again  kept  as  still  as  I  could,  though  by 
this  time  I  was  actually  trembling  with  excitement  and 
nerves.  In  a  short  time  I  heard  the  lion  begin  to 
creep  toward  me.  I  could  barely  make  out  his  form, 
as  he  crouched  among  the  whitish  undergrowth,  but 
I  saw  enough  for  my  purpose,  and  before  he  could  come 

[120] 


Man-Eating  Lions  33 

any  nearer  I  took  careful  aim  and  fired.  The  sound  of 
the  shot  was  at  once  followed  by  a  terrific  roar  and 
then  I  could  hear  him  leaping  about  in  all  directions. 
I  was  no  longer  able  to  see  him,  for  his  first  bound 
had  taken  him  into  the  thick  bush,  but,  to  make  as- 
surance doubly  sure,  I  kept  blazing  away  in  the  direc- 
tion in  which  I  heard  him  plunging  about.  At  length 
came  a  series  of  mighty  groans,  gradually  subsiding 
into  deep  sighs,  and  finally  ceasing  altogether,  and  I 
then  knew  that  one  of  the  "devils"  who  had  so  long 
harried  us  would  trouble  us  no  more. 

As  soon  as  I  ceased  firing,  a  tumult  of  enquiring 
voices  was  borne  across  the  dark  jungle  from  the  men 
in  camp  about  quarter  of  a  mile  away.  I  shouted  back 
that  I  was  safe  and  sound  and  that  the  lion  was  dead. 
Whereupon  such  a  mighty  cheer  went  up  from  all  the 
camps  as  must  have  frightened  the  denizens  of  the 
jungle  for  miles  around.  Soon  I  saw  scores  of  lights 
twinkling  through  the  bushes.  Every  man  in  camp 
turned  out,  and,  with  tom-toms  beating  and  horns 
blowing  came  running  to  the  scene.  They  surrounded 
my  perch,  and — to  my  amazement — prostrated  them- 
selves on  the  ground  before  me,  saluting  me  with  cries 
of  "Mabarak!  Mabarak!"  which  means  "Blessed  one" 
or  "Saviour."  I  refused  to  allow  any  search  for  the 
body  of  the  lion  to  be  made,  in  case  he  might  possibly 
be  shamming  dead.  Accordingly  we  all  returned  in 
triumph  to  the  camp,  where  great  rejoicings  were  kept 
up  for  the  remainder  of  the  night,  the  Swahili  and 
other  African  natives  celebrating  the  occasion  by  an 
exceptionally  wild  and  savage  dance. 

For  my  part,  I  anxiously  awaited  the  dawn,  and 
even  before  it  was  thoroughly  light,  I  was  on  my  way 
to  the  eventful  spot,  for  I  could  not  completely  per- 
suade myself  even  yet  that  "the  devil"  might  not  have 
eluded  me  in  some  uncanny  and  mysterious  way.  Hap- 
pily my  fears  proved  groundless,  and  I  was  greatly 

[121] 


34  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

relieved  to  find  that  my  luck — after  playing  me  so 
many  exasperating  tricks — had  really  turned  at  last. 
I  had  scarcely  traced  the  blood  for  more  than  a  few 
paces  when,  on  rounding  a  bush,  I  was  startled  to  see 
a  huge  lion  right  in  front  of  me,  seemingly  alive  and 
crouching  for  a  spring.  On  looking  closer,  however, 
I  satisfied  myself  that  he  was  really  and  truly  stone 
dead,  whereupon  my  followers  crowded  round,  laughed 
and  danced  and  shouted  with  joy  like  children,  and 
bore  me  in  triumph  shoulder-high  round  the  dead  body. 
When  these  thanksgiving  ceremonies  were  over,  I 
examined  my  trophy  and  found  that  it  was  indeed  one 
to  be  proud  of.  His  length  from  tip  of  nose  to  tip  of 
tail  was  nine  feet  eight  inches;  he  stood  three  feet, 
nine  inches  high,  and  it  took  eight  men  to  carry  him 
back  to  camp.  On  examining  his  head,  I  found  that  a 
.303  bullet  had  smashed  out  one  of  his  tusks,  for  the 
track  of  the  bullet  was  left  in  the  tooth  stump.  I 
must  have  given  him  a  bad  toothache  the  night  he 
attacked  Brock  and  myself  in  the  freight  car. 

The  End  of  the  Man-Eaters. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  with  the  death  of 
this  lion  our  troubles  at  Tsavo  were  at  an  end;  his 
companion  was  still  at  large,  and  very  soon  began  to 
make  us  unpleasantly  aware  of  the  fact.  Only  a  few 
nights  elapsed  before  he  made  an  attempt  to  get  at 
the  Permanent  Way  Inspector,  climbing  up  the  steps 
of  his  bungalow  and  prowling  round  the  verandah. 
Mr.  Dalgairns,  hearing  the  noise  and  thinking  it  was 
a  drunken  coolie,  shouted  angrily,  "Go  away!"  but, 
fortunately  for  him,  did  not  attempt  to  come  out  or 
to  open  the  door.  Thus  disappointed  in  his  attempt 
to  obtain  a  meal  of  human  flesh,  the  lion  seized  a 
couple  of  the  Inspector's  goats  and  devoured  them 
there  and  then. 

[122] 


Man-Eating  Lions  35 

On  hearing  of  this  occurrence,  I  determined  to  sit 
up  the  next  night  near  the  Inspector's  bungalow.  For- 
tunately there  was  a  vacant  iron  shanty  close  at  hand, 
with  a  convenient  loophole  in  it  for  firing  from;  and 
outside  this  I  placed  three  full-grown  goats  as  bait, 
tying  them  to  a  half  length  of  rail,  weighing  about 
250  lbs.  The  night  passed  uneventfully  until  just  be- 
fore daybreak,  when  at  last  the  lion  turned  up,  pounced 
on  one  of  the  goats  and  made  off  with  it,  at  the  same 
time  dragging  away  the  others,  rail  and  all.  I  fired 
several  shots  in  his  direction,  but  it  was  pitch  dark 
and  quite  impossible  to  see  anything,  so  I  only  suc- 
ceeded in  hitting  one  of  the  goats. 

Next  morning  I  started  off  in  pursuit  and  was 
joined  by  some  others  from  the  camp.  The  trail  of 
the  goats  and  rail  was  easily  followed,  and  we  soon 
came  up,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away,  to  where  the 
lion  was  still  busy  at  his  meal.  He  was  concealed  in 
some  thick  scrub  and  growled  angrily  on  hearing  our 
approach;  finally,  as  we  got  closer,  he  suddenly  made 
a  charge,  rushing  through  the  bushes  at  a  great  pace. 
In  an  instant,  every  man  of  the  party  scrambled 
hastily  up  the  nearest  tree,  with  the  exception  of  one 
of  my  assistants,  Mr.  Winkler,  who  stood  steadily  by 
me  throughout.  The  brute,  however,  did  not  press 
his  charge  home;  and  on  throwing  stones  into  the 
bushes  where  we  had  last  seen  him,  we  guessed  by 
the  silence  that  he  had  slunk  off.  We,  therefore,  ad- 
vanced cautiously,  and,  on  getting  up  to  the  place, 
discovered  that  he  had  indeed  escaped  us,  leaving  two 
of  the  goats  scarcely  touched. 

Thinking  that  in  all  probability  the  lion  would 
return  as  usual  to  finish  his  meal,  I  had  a  very  strong 
scaffolding  put  up  a  few  feet  away  from  the  dead 
goats,  and  took  up  my  position  on  it  before  dark.  On 
this  occasion  I  brought  my  gun-bearer,  Mahina,  to 
take  a  turn  at  watching,  as  I  was  by  this  time  worn 

[123] 


36  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

out  for  want  of  sleep,  having  spent  so  many  nights 
on  the  lookout.  I  was  just  dozing  off  comfortably, 
when  suddenly  I  felt  my  arm  seized,  and,  on  looking 
up,  saw  Mahina  pointing  in  the  direction  of  the  goats. 
"Sher!"  (Lion)  was  all  he  whispered.  I  grasped  my 
smooth-bore,  which  I  had  double-charged  with  slug, 
and  waited  patiently.  In  a  few  moments  I  was  re- 
warded, for,  as  I  watched  the  spot  where  I  expected 
the  lion  to  appear,  there  was  a  rustling  among  the 
bushes,  and  I  saw  him  stealthily  emerge  into  the  open 
and  pass  almost  directly  beneath  us.  I  fired  both  bar- 
rels practically  together  into  his  shoulder,  and,  to  my 
joy,  could  see  him  go  down  under  the  force  of  the  blow. 
Quickly  I  reached  for  the  magazine  rifle,  but,  before 
I  could  use  it,  he  was  up  again  and  out  of  sight  among 
the  bushes,  and  I  had  to  fire  after  him  quite  at  ran- 
dom. Nevertheless  I  was  confident  of  getting  him 
in  the  morning,  and  accordingly  set  out  as  soon  as  it 
was  light.  For  over  a  mile  there  was  no  difficulty  in 
following  the  blood  trail,  and,  as  he  had  rested  sev- 
eral times,  I  knew  that  he  had  been  badly  wounded.  In 
the  end,  however,  my  hunt  proved  fruitless,  for  after 
a  time  the  traces  of  blood  ceased  and  the  surface  of 
the  ground  became  rocky,  so  that  I  was  no  longer  able 
to  follow  the  spoor. 

As  it  happened,  there  was  no  sign  of  our  enemy 
for  about  ten  days  after  this,  and  we  began  to  hope 
that  he  had  died  of  his  wounds  in  the  bush.  All  the 
same  we  still  took  every  precaution  at  night,  and  it 
was  fortunate  that  we  did  so,  for  otherwise  at  least 
one  more  victim  would  have  been  added  to  the  list. 
I  was  suddenly  aroused  one  night  by  terrified  shouts 
from  my  trolley  men,  who  slept  in  a  tree  close  outside 
my  boma;  they  were  crying  out  that  the  lion  was 
trying  to  get  at  them.  It  would  have  been  madness 
to  have  gone  out,  as  the  moon  was  hidden  by  dense 
clouds  and  it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  see  any- 

[124] 


Man-Eating  Lions  37 

thing  more  than  a  yard  ahead,  so  all  I  could  do  was  to 
fire  off  a  few  rounds  just  to  frighten  the  brute  away. 
This  apparently  had  the  desired  effect,  for  the  men 
were  not  further  molested  that  night;  but  the  man- 
eater  had  evidently  prowled  about  for  some  time,  for 
we  found  in  the  morning  that  he  had  gone  right  into 
every  one  of  their  tents,  and  round  the  tree  was  a 
regular  ring  of  his  footmarks. 

The  following  evening  I  took  up  my  position  in 
this  same  tree,  in  the  hope  that  he  would  make  another 
attempt.  The  night  began  badly,  for,  while  climbing 
up  to  my  perch,  I  very  nearly  put  my  hand  on  a  veno- 
mous snake  which  was  lying  coiled  round  one  of  the 
branches.  As  may  be  imagined,  I  came  down  again 
very  quickly,  but  one  of  my  men  managed  to  despatch 
it  with  a  long  pole.  Fortunately  the  night  was  clear 
and  cloudless,  and  the  moon  made  everything  almost 
as  bright  as  day.  I  kept  watch  until  about  2  A.  M., 
when  I  roused  Mahina  to  take  his  turn.  For  about  an 
hour  I  slept  peacefully  with  my  back  to  the  tree,  and 
then  woke  suddenly  with  an  uncanny  feeling  that 
something  was  wrong.  Mahina,  however,  was  on  the 
alert,  and  had  seen  nothing;  and,  although  I  looked 
carefully  round  us  on  all  sides,  I  too  could  discover 
nothing  unusual.  Only  half  satisfied,  I  was  about  to 
lie  back  again,  when  I  fancied  I  saw  something  move 
a  little  way  off  among  the  low  bushes.  On  gazing  in- 
tently at  the  spot  for  a  few  seconds,  I  found  I  was  not 
mistaken.  It  was  the  man-eater,  cautiously  stalking 
us. 

The  ground  was  fairly  open  round  our  tree,  with 
only  a  small  bush  here  and  there;  and  from  our  posi- 
tion it  was  a  most  fascinating  sight  to  watch  this 
great  brute  stealing  stealthily  round  us,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  every  bit  of  cover  as  he  came.  His  skill 
showed  that  he  was  an  old  hand  at  the  terrible  game 
of  man-hunting,  so  I  determined  to  run  no  undue  risk 

[125] 


38  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

of  losing  him  this  time.  Accordingly  I  waited  until 
he  got  quite  close — about  twenty  yards  away — and 
then  fired  my  .303  at  his  chest.  I  heard  the  bullet 
strike  him,  but  unfortunately  it  had  no  knockdown 
effect,  for,  with  a  fierce  growl,  he  turned  and  made 
off  with  great  long  bounds.  Before  he  disappeared 
from  sight,  however,  I  managed  to  have  three  more 
shots  at  him  from  the  magazine  rifle,  and  another 
growl  told  me  that  the  last  of  these  had  also  taken 
effect. 

We  awaited  daylight  with  impatience,  and  at  the 
first  glimmer  of  dawn  set  out  to  hunt  him  down.  I 
took  a  native  tracker  with  me,  so  that  I  was  free  to 
keep  a  good  lookout,  while  Mahina  followed  immedi- 
ately behind  with  a  Martini  carbine.  Splashes  of 
blood  being  plentiful,  we  were  able  to  get  along  quick- 
ly and  we  had  not  proceeded  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  through  the  jungle  when  suddenly  a  fierce  warn- 
ing growl  was  heard  right  in  front  of  us.  Looking 
cautiously  through  the  bushes,  I  could  see  the  man- 
eater  glaring  out  in  our  direction,  and  showing  his 
tusks  in  an  angry  snarl.  I  at  once  took  careful  aim 
and  fired.  Instantly  he  sprang  out  and  made  a  most 
determined  charge  down  on  us.  I  fired  again  and 
knocked  him  over,  but  in  a  second  he  was  up  once 
more  and  coming  for  me  as  fast  as  he  could  in  his 
crippled  condition.  A  third  shot  had  no  apparent 
effect,  so  I  put  out  my  hand  for  the  Martini  hoping  to 
stop  him  with  the  heavy  lead  bullet.  To  my  horror, 
however,  the  rifle  was  not  there.  The  terror  of  the 
sudden  charge  had  proved  too  much  for  Mahina,  and 
both  he  and  the  carbine  were  by  this  time  well  on  their 
way  up  a  tree.  In  the  circumstances  there  was  noth- 
ing to  do  but  follow  suit,  which  I  did  without  loss  of 
time,  and,  but  for  the  fact  that  one  of  my  shots  had 
broken  a  hind  leg,  the  brute  would  most  certainly 
have  seized  me.     Even  as  it  was,  I  had  barely  time 

[126] 


Man-Eating  Lions  39 

to  swing"  myself  up  out  of  his  reach  before  he  ar- 
rived at  the  foot  of  the  tree. 

When  the  lion  found  he  was  too  late,  he  started  to 
limp  back  to  the  thicket ;  but  by  this  time  I  had  taken 
the  carbine  from  Mahina,  and  the  first  shot  I  fired 
from  it  seemed  to  give  him  his  quietus,  for  he  fell 
over  and  lay  motionless.  Rather  foolishly  I  at  once 
scrambled  down  from  the  tree  and  walked  up  to  him. 
To  my  surprise  and  no  little  alarm  he  jumped  up  and 
attempted  another  charge.  This  time,  however,  a 
Martini  bullet  in  the  chest  and  another  in  the  head 
finished  him;  he  dropped  in  his  tracks  not  five  yards 
away  from  me,  and  died  gamely,  biting  savagely  at  a 
branch  which  had  fallen  to  the  ground. 

By  this  time  all  the  workmen  in  camp,  attracted 
by  the  sound  of  the  firing,  had  arrived  on  the  scene, 
and  so  great  was  their  resentment  against  the  brute 
who  had  killed  and  devoured  such  numbers  of  their 
comrades  that  it  was  only  with  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty that  I  could  restrain  them  from  tearing  the  dead 
body  to  pieces.  Eventually,  amid  the  wild  rejoicings 
of  the  natives  and  coolies,  I  had  the  lion  carried  to  my 
boma,  which  was  close  at  hand.  On  examination,  we 
found  no  less  than  six  bullet  holes  in  the  body,  and 
embedded  only  a  little  way  in  the  flesh  of  the  back 
was  the  slug  which  I  had  fired  into  him  from  the  scaf- 
folding about  ten  days  previously.  As  in  the  case 
of  his  companion,  the  skin  was  deeply  scored  all  over 
by  the  thorns  of  the  bomas  through  which  he  had  to 
force  his  way  in  order  to  get  at  his  victims. 

The  news  of  the  death  of  the  second  "devil"  soon 
spread  far  and  wide  over  the  country,  and  natives 
actually  travelled  from  up  and  down  the  line  to  have 
a  look  at  my  trophies  and  at  the  "devil-killer",  as  they 
called  me.  Best  of  all,  the  coolies  who  had  absconded 
came  flocking  back  to  Tsavo,  and,  much  to  my  relief, 
work  was  resumed,  the  bridge  was  completed  and  we 

[127] 


40 


Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 


were  never  again  troubled  by  man-eaters.  It  was 
amusing,  indeed,  to  notice  the  change  which  took  place 
in  the  attitude  of  the  workmen  toward  me  after  I  had 
killed  the  two  lions.  Instead  of  wishing  to  murder 
me,  as  they  once  did,  they  now  could  not  do  enough 
for  me,  and,  as  a  token  of  their  gratitude,  they  pre- 
sented me  with  a  beautiful  silver  bowl,  as  well  as  with 
a  long  poem  written  in  Hindustani  describing  all  our 
trials  and  my  ultimate  victory. 


J.  H.  Patterson. 


Iver,  Bucks,  England. 
September,  1925. 


Map  of  Africa  showing  location  of  Tsavo. 


[128] 


THE  FIRST  MAN-EATER  KILLED.     (Seep.  33.) 


nt' mfl)i 

-wJ&Q 

3lpi 

fc-^ 

■y^V 

//     v-~ ~. 

. 

l^Eifc 

L* 

TREE  FROM  WHICH  SECOND  LION  WAS  SHOT.     (See  p.  37.) 


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